The present invention relates to an ink-jet printer and, more particularly, to a printer which selectively heats heating elements to eject ink, thus forming an image on a sheet.
Various non-impact recording methods (e.g., electrostatic, heat-sensitive sheet heating, thermal transfer, electrophotography, and ink-jet methods) have been conventionally proposed.
Among these various methods, the ink-jet type can easily realize a low-noise, low-power consumption, compact, multi-color printer, and its constituents are inexpensive. Therefore, it has seen increasing popularity.
As is known, ink-jet printers include printers using pressure elements, static pressure acceleration, bubble-jets, and the like. In all conventional ink-jet printers, however, since a nozzle is used to eject ink from its distal end, it often clogs. In addition, since an ink-jet printer using a nozzle requires a space for moving the nozzle, a large number of nozzles cannot be concentrated within a small area, so a printing operation using many dots cannot easily be performed. Therefore, conventional ink-jet printers use a single nozzle, resulting in low printing speed.